Thriller Recipe

Thriller Recipe

There are certain requirements in a film in order to place it within the thriller genre. This is based on the fact that a thriller is designed to make its audience experience suspense and tension and also feel a degree of terror through what they experience while watching the film. Therefore, a team who are creating a thriller film, must take into account all of the different genre conventions that relate to a thriller film. Furthermore, the thriller genre is such a vast one that it is most divided into sub genres. Here are different examples of sub-genres within the thriller genre:

- Spy thrillers (The Bourne Ultimatum)
- political thrillers (The Manchurian Candidate)
- conspiracy thrillers (Zero Dark Thirty)
- Legal thrillers (The Departed)
- Psychological thrillers (Silence of the lambs)

What all of these sub genres have in common is the fact that they all come under the title of suspense thriller and are divided based on the storyline and content of their films. Therefore, it makes it evident that themes such as suspense, tension and anxiety are key to the infrastructure and success of a thriller film. However, there are techniques and criteria that are followed film makers in order to install these themes within their thriller films. Here are examples of thriller conventions:

The McGuffin

The McGuffin as established by Alfred Hitchcock is the source that drives the plot and gives reason to the film for both the villains and the "hero" or favoured character. It has been identified that the audience do not truly register the McGuffin and have too much care for it, they are just aware that the characters are associated with this item but their main concern is with the main character and how they will escape the villains and fulfil their goals set throughout the film. This installs a thriller film with a stronger plot and thus helps filmmakers develop outward from the McGuffin.



Red Herring

A Red Herring is another useful convention of the thriller genre, it allows the plot/storyline to be abruptly or gradually directed in a different direction. This is useful as it often provides the audience with a shock as what they believe to be the bulk of the storyline is changed and they have to adjust and adapt to this which can be very shocking. A strong example of a red herring from Hitchcock's Psycho, is the Bates Motel, as prior to this, the audience would belief that the storyline would be about the pursuit of Marion by the other characters, but the Motel has something else in store for them. This shows how the Red Herring can be very effective in bringing he shock factor into film.